History

The distinct SS runes right side collar tab was first used by the Leibstandarte SS 'Adolf Hitler', the original military arm of the SS that would spearhead the formation of the SS-Verfügungstruppe, which was later transformed into the Waffen-SS.

As of May of 1940, members of the Waffen-SS were required to wear SS runes on their right collar tab and an Allgemeine-SS rank collar tab on the left side of the collar. An exception were individual divisions that were allowed to wear their own unique divisional collar tab in place of the regular SS collar tab, along with the rank collar tab.

Waffen-SS collar tabs were manufactured by covering a parallelogram shaped piece of buckram with black fabric. Black cloth or felt was used to cover the collar tabs for the ranks of SS-Mann up to and including SS-Obersturmbannführer. The collar tabs for the ranks of SS-Standartenführer to SS-Oberstgruppenführer were covered with black velvet.

Until August of 1940, the collar tabs of Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and Enlisted Men (EMs) were piped with twisted black and aluminium cord. Afterwards, the piping was discontinued in order to save on material and labour. Officer and General grade collar tabs were piped with twisted aluminium cord, although collar tabs with piping were rarely worn with field uniforms.